Israeli President visits Sydney LIVE updates: Protesters issue defiant message as Isaac Herzog touches down under heavy guard

Isaac Herzog has arrived in Australia as pro-Palestine supporters have vowed to go ahead with a mass protest.

  • 09 февраля 2026, 01:00

Isaac Herzog has arrived in Australia as pro-Palestine supporters have vowed to go ahead with a mass protest.

The Israeli President touched down in Sydney on Monday morning for an official state visit in the wake of the December 14 Bondi terror attack.

He is set to meet with families of victims of the mass shooting before travelling to Canberra and Melbourne to sit down with Jewish community leaders.

Many have slammed Herzogs visit, calling for federal police to investigate the Israeli president for alleged war crimes. 

NSW Police have been granted extra powers to restrict movement in the CBD during Herzogs visit, where anyone who fails to comply with officers directions may face penalties, including fines of up to $5,500 or exclusion from the major event area.

Up to 5,000 pro-Palestine supporters will protest Herzogs visit at a rally outside Sydney Town Hall on Monday night.

Organisers insist the rally will go ahead, regardless of the outcome of an 11th-hour legal challenge after NSW Premier Chris Minns formally declared the visit a major event, granting police extra powers to block movements in the CBD.

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Protest organisers' defiant message

Palestine Action Group spokesman Josh Lees said that Monday night's 'peaceful' protest outside Sydney Town Hall will go ahead, regardless of the outcome of a 11th-hour legal challenge regardless against ramped up police powers for Isaac Herzog's visit Australian visit.

A last-minute Supreme Court hearing arguing the powers are excessive, unjustified and unlawful is scheduled before Justice Robertson Wright on Monday morning.

Mr Lee has repeatedly refused police requests to relocate the protest from Town Hall to Hyde Park, where weekly pro-Palestine protests have been held since October 2023.

'We need to be seen. We need to be heard. And that's why Town Hall is the most common location for that kind of protest because we want thousands of people to be able to gather and be seen in our city to oppose this terrible visit,' Lees told Ten News Plus on Sunday.

'Our government and our media establishment have tried to politicise this tragedy, horrific attack at Bondi and now this tour is a completely political tour.

He added that protesters do not want any confrontation as he called on NSW Police to facilitate their march from Town Hall to NSW Parliament.

'The streets of Sydney belong to the people, not to the war criminal Israeli president,' Mr Lees posted on Monday.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said Mr Herzog's visit would 'lift the spirits of a pained community'.

'We hope it will lead to a much-needed recalibration of bilateral relations between two historic allies,' he said.

'President Herzog is a patriot and a person of dignity and compassion and holds an office that is above party politics.'

But Judith Treanor, from Jews against the Occupation '48, said the visit told the world that 'genocide is compatible with Jewish identity'.

'There are Jews who support Israel and Jews who don't ... Herzog must be investigated, (he's) not welcomed here,' she said.

The Jewish Council of Australia launched a major advertising campaign on Monday, printing a public letter condemning the visit - signed by more than 1000 Jewish Australians.

'We refuse to let our collective grief be used to legitimise a leader whose rhetoric has been part of inciting a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and has contributed to the illegal annexation of the West Bank,' Council executive officer Sarah Schwartz said on Monday.

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